Lehnert and Landrock · The Egyptomania Postcard Project 2020/1 · UCI Libraries

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Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878-1948)

Regardless of the photographs generally being ascribed under “Lehnert & Landrock,” and signed/stamped with the monograms of the firm; the photographs were taken by Lehnert. In viewing these photographs, the cultural context must be recalled. Lehnert’s photographs provide rich source material for the exploration of exploitation, moral superiority over his (Arab) subjects, ‘imagining the other,’ and exploring the paradigm for interpretation of politics and power or that of imagination and inspiration. His photography had romantic influence, evident especially in the portrait work, featuring an attention to lighting, a dramatisation and working-for-effect reminiscent of Ingres or Delacroix. All of Lehnert’s extant work is of North Africa, a fact remarkable in itself. Beside photographing the architecture, landscape and monuments of North Africa, Lehnert produced a sizable body of portraits and figure studies depicting local people. Though not shown in his postcards, Lehnert explored notions of gender and sexuality through the use of iconuc motifs such as drapery and convey erotic intentions subtly and sometimes symbolically. Looking at the cultural aspects, the female studies, given the restrictions of social customs and religious beliefs access to females was highly limited. As a result of this, it can be concluded that the females photographed were mainly prostitutes. It is pparent that Lehnert enhanced the erotic sensibility of the images through the use of certain refrences in both the female and male work. Lehnert’s figure studies delve into private realms with an unapologetic frankness and openness that makes them immediate and accessible.

Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966)

Ernst Heinrich Landrock was a business manager who was based in Tunis, Leipzig and Cairo. He is mainly known for his works with Rudolf Franz Lehnert, published as "Lehnert & Landrock." Landrock and Lehnert met by chance in Switzerland in 1904. Both were only 26 at the time. Lehnert had recently returned from a walking tour of Tunisia and showed his photographic plates to Landrock, who recognized within them both their artistic and economic work. The two set out that year for Tunis the same year (1904) and established their first studio on the Avenue de France - a busy shopping street in the Ville Nouvelle district. The business was to last ten years until 1914, when French martial law forced its closure.

As non-French inhabitants of a French colony they came under suspicion, and their property, including Lehnert's glass plates, were seized by the French colonial authorities. At the time Lehnert was on one of his frequent excursions into the southern desert regions. Upon his return to Tunis, unaware of the political situation, he was arrested and jailed. Landrock had meanwhile returned to Europe and it was only with considerable difficulty that he managed to secure Lehnert's release.

When their native regions entered into political alliances with the French, and through considerable bureaucratic wrangling plus Mrs Lehnert's Alsatian-French connections, they were able to secure the return of their glass plates. In the 1920s they ventured into partnership again, this time in Cairo. This firm still exists there under the name 'Lehnert & Landrock'. When Lehnert and Landrock opened their studio in Cairo, The Cairo Postcard Trust had been enjoying a thriving postcard trade for over two decades. Some have been critical of this aspect of North African photographic work - specifically Lehnert and Landrock’s work in particular.